With the onset of Britain’s third covid-19 lockdown within a year, Triskele Heritage will be stepping up to try and provide some (hopefully) entertaining and informative free public talks. The weekly lockdown lectures will feature the fruits of our research so you can be sure that the content will all be bang up to date!
Each week we will host a lockdown lecture freely accessible to anyone with a web connection via Zoom. All you need to do is register via Eventbrite and – when the time for the talk rolls around – grab your favourite beverage of choice, get comfy and enjoy.
Our second event will take place at 17:00GMT on Thursday 28 January 2021 and will focus on Historic Graffiti.
Due to our licensing agreement with Zoom tickets for each event will be limited to 495 places. If you cannot make it after booking, please do return your ticket so that someone else can enjoy the talk instead.
Please note that this is a live event only and there will not be a recording of the talk available afterwards.
More information on the talk
Modern graffiti is often seen as transgressive and moronic. However, look closely in the light of a torch at the walls of our historic buildings, trees, caves and rockfaces and you will see a world of graffiti left that illuminates the psychology of our ancestors. The study of historic graffiti enables us to hear the lost voices of ordinary individuals through their images of daisywheels, ships sailing across the walls, knights drawing their swords, demons stalking the stonework and every animal imaginable….
‘Have to say the romantic in me was disappointed that the castle is no longer there.’
‘I would not recommend going out of your way to visit it.’
‘What we call the castle now, actually isn’t’
‘…the poor excuse for a castle’
‘I hate the building inside’
‘…not much history is attached to this place.’
‘…found the whole place boring and disappointing.’
‘I hate the fact that there is a Georgian manor inside now’
‘…bit of me wishes that it had been demolished and replaced with a facsimile medieval castle.’
These are all actual quotes about Nottingham Castle harvested from online comment sections. OUCH. Feel that burn.
Now, I should start this post with a disclaimer – a registered interest, if you like. I am a buildings archaeologist. My primary field of research is mediaeval castles. I also live in Nottingham. On top of this I’ve worked at Nottingham Castle as both a conservation stonemason and as a historic stone specialist. I may have also written a book about the Castles of Nottinghamshire. Ultimately, Nottingham is my hometown castle and I genuinely have a lot of love for the place. I am also so pleased to see the site reopening, on Monday 21 June 2021, after the £29.4 million Nottingham Castle transformation project!
However, whenever I (unwisely) step into the bottom half of the internet and read comments about the site (from locals and visitors alike) the castle seems to get a lot of vitriol slung at it. More so than any other castle that I can think of. Which in itself is curious. In this article I want to think about the history of the site, consider why people seem to feel so strongly about their experiences at Nottingham Castle and offer a defence of the dear old place.
The seventeenth century ducal palace
‘A Place Full Royal’
Nottingham Castle stands on the summit of a rock outcrop to the west of the city centre which is famously riddled with artificial caves and tunnels. It was fortified, with earth and timber, for William the Conqueror during the winter of 1067/8 and was then kept by his henchmen, the Peveril family. They struggled to hold the castle for King Stephen during the ‘Anarchy’ and the site changed hands several times in the mid-twelfth century until it was eventually taken into direct royal control by Henry II. He spent a lot of time upgrading the site and rebuilding in stone.
By this point the castle consisted of a royal citadel (Upper Bailey) on the edge of the rock, a large enclosure to the north containing the chapel, kitchens and great hall (Middle Bailey), a third area to the east (Outer Bailey) lay close to the Norman Borough and a fourth enclosure stood further to the north. Meanwhile, a Brewhouse and mills lay on the banks of the River Leen, to the south, and a deer park lay to the west.
The Outer Bailey, featuring the new orientation centre for the castle
Subsequently, the castle had a rich, vibrant and exciting history. Richard I successfully besieged supporters of his brother, John, in March 1194 and hanged a number of them for resisting. To continue this theme, after inheriting the throne, John also hanged 28 Welsh hostages from the walls in 1212. His son, Henry III ordered major reorganisation of the castle – he was responsible for the surviving Outer Bailey walls, towers, gatehouse and bridge. Edward I also lavished large sums on the castle and his son, Edward II, spent many long visits at what was now a palatial fortress.
One of the most famous episodes in the castle’s history took place, in October 1330, when the young Edward III crept through a tunnel stretching between the deer park and the Middle Bailey. He did so to surprise and capture Roger Mortimer, the presumed lover of his mother, who had deposed his father. Later in his reign, Edward had the captured Scottish king David II imprisoned at Nottingham Castle after the battle of Neville’s Cross.
Mediaeval walls and tower of the Outer Bailey
The royal visits and lavish spending continued throughout the fourteenth century, until the castle was taken over by the Lancastrians in 1399. Henry IV witnessed a dual between two Frenchmen in 1407. However, for much of the fifteenth century the castle was under the control of appointed constables such as Ralph Lord Cromwell. That is until the Yorkist Edward IV took a personal interest in the site and instigated the last major mediaeval building project – Richard’s Tower with its elegant suite of apartments in the Middle Bailey – at a cost of £3000 between 1476-80. The poet John Skelton described the castle at this time as ‘a place full royal’. In 1485, Edward’s brother, Richard III, gathered his forces at Nottingham prior to marching out to his doom at Bosworth.
‘Decay and Ruin’
The Tudors had relatively little interest in Nottingham. They seldom travelled so far north and were more interested in their fashionable brick courtyard houses in the south-east. When the castle was surveyed in 1525 it was found to be in ‘decay and ruin’. Although some repairs were ordered, the rot continued throughout Elizabeth’s reign and the site was leased to the earl of Rutland in 1622 and earl of Newcastle in 1641.
On 22 August 1642 Charles I declared opened hostilities on Parliament and chose the old enclosure to the north of the castle to raise the Royal Standard and launch the British Civil Wars. However, by the autumn, the castle had been garrisoned by Parliament – eventually coming under the governorship of Colonel John Hutchinson. Despite the dilapidated state of the site, Hutchinson set about making it defensible and successfully held it against royalist raiding throughout the war. In 1651, the new commander, Major Poulton, lobbied the Council of State to slight the castle which led to near-wholesale demolition between July and November of that year.
East elevation of the Ducal Palace, built in the 1670s
‘A Stately Mansion’
After the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the castle was purchased by William Cavendish, now duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He hired stonemason Samuel Marsh and embarked on a project, between 1674-9, to transform the site into an Italianate Ducal Palace, later described by the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘a stately mansion’.
Although later owners had largely abandoned the house by the nineteenth century, opposition to the extension of voting rights in the Reform Act of 1831 by the 4th duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme sparked a riot in Nottingham which left the castle a burned-out shell. The site was then used as a military parade ground until it was purchased by the local authority. Architect Thomas Hine was contracted to remodel the mansion, between 1875-8, as the first art gallery outside of London in public ownership. The castle remains in the possession of Nottingham City Council, who have recently appointed a trust to oversee, manage and run the site. Comprehensive renovation began in 2018 and the site reopened to the public in June 2021.
Unfortunate Comparisons
Given the incredible history of Nottingham Castle there is a real sense of loss – almost a trauma – that comes out as a visceral sense of injury, resentment and deficiency in people’s reactions to the site. For locals and visitors alike the site isn’t a “proper” castle. It doesn’t fit the popular image of a great mediaeval castle: towers, crenellations, dungeons, spiral stairs, portcullis, drawbridge or moat (although there is still surviving physical evidence for most of these).
When compared to Warwick, Bamburgh or Caernarfon the perception is that Nottingham doesn’t compete. From the exterior of the mediaeval Outer Bailey gatehouse the view looks promising but, on entering, the sense of disappointment weighs heavily for many visitors when confronted with a mansion house sitting in municipal gardens. Criticism of this building started early. Writing in the 1790s, the antiquarian John Throsby noted that: ‘as an object of admiration to the surrounding country, in union with the rock on which it stands, it falls very short of our wishes and expectation.’
Silhouette of Guy’s Tower, Warwick Castle
Yet Nottingham is not particularly rare in being a town or city lacking substantial remains of its mediaeval castle. Fifteen miles to the west is the city’s great rival – Derby – which had a motte and bailey castle that barely survived the Norman period. Similar stories played out in the county towns of Bedford, Buckingham, Ipswich and Stafford. The fenland castles at Peterborough, Ely, and Cambridge are now traced only by grassy mounds. Worcester, Leicester and Canterbury lasted longer, but only vestiges now remain. Elsewhere, Bolsover was taken down and rebuilt as a Renaissance pastiche of a castle in the early seventeenth century.
Many mediaeval castles suffered substantially during the British Civil Wars and only scant remains are left at sites including Bristol, Pontefract and Belvoir in Leicestershire. The latter was substantially remodelled in the sixteenth century, heavily damaged in the Civil Wars and comprehensively rebuilt as a Neo-Gothick mansion in the nineteenth century. Gloucester’s castle was lost beneath a prison. Northampton was swallowed beneath a rail station.
Losing a castle is not a rarity. So why do folk get so salty about the lack of mediaeval buildings at Nottingham?
The much-altered remains of the great hall at Leicester Castle
Outlaws of Sherwood
Distinct from all of the above, Nottingham Castle is one of the most renowned historic locations in the British Isles through its association with “Bad King John”, the wicked Sherriff of Nottingham and the heroic Robin Hood. The castle receives approximately 200,000 visitors every year – many of them hungry to explore the setting for the celebrated folklore of the greenwood outlaw. It is an intrinsic part of the world-famous legends of Sherwood Forest and, in the minds of many, the site doesn’t offer the expected levels of majestic romance portrayed on stage and screen.
Unlike the espousal of King Arthur’s mythic birthplace at Tintagel Castle (Cornwall) by English Heritage, there has been a historic resistance by Nottingham’s authorities towards effectively embracing the legendary associations of the castle. This is certainly changing, but throughout my lifetime Robin Hood has been kept strictly outside of the walls. Literally. His iconic statue is placed in what was once the castle boundary ditch. For over twenty years the principle city centre attraction linked to the outlaw – The Tales of Robin Hood – was a private enterprise which closed down over a decade ago. Inside the castle, the outlaw was largely absent from displays and interpretation. Materiality eclipsed intangible heritage. Was the Hooded Man just too flighty to be taken seriously in a formal museum setting?
Nottingham’s Robin Hood statue – located outside of the castle gates
If visitors flock to Nottingham expecting a sprawling mediaeval castle worthy of John, Robin and the Sherriff they are understandably disappointed. However, would they feel the same if confronted with picturesque ruins? There was once the potential for this. Daniel King’s view of Nottingham Castle, drawn after the slighting of the castle in 1660, showed upstanding mediaeval buildings. It is clear that these were cleared away prior to the construction of the Ducal Palace.
An Unwanted Palace?
Is there perhaps a sense of feeling cheated – particularly for the locals of Nottingham? A sense that if it weren’t for the construction of the mansion then there might have been something akin to Kenilworth Castle (which was also garrisoned and slighted during the Civil Wars) standing on Castle Rock? Try and visualise just how magnificent that would have looked. Imagine how impressed tourists would be. Contemplate the bursting pride that local people would feel. Ponder just how many hundreds of thousands more visitors would flock from all over the globe. Consider just how much more revenue would be generated…
The slighted ruins of Kenilworth Castle
For many people, the very act of building the Ducal Palace on the site of what had undoubtedly been one of the most spectacular castles of the mediaeval era adds an unbearably painful insult to an already excruciating injury. Yet compare this with the extensive destruction of Pontefract Castle in 1649 – there is nowhere near the levels of instinctive anguish over its loss – despite the fact that it was a demonstrably comparable site to Nottingham.
Aside from the lack of a legendary hero associated with the castle, Pontefract was not landscaped and rebuilt in an altogether new style. There was no perceived insult to the memory of the mediaeval castle where Richard II starved to death in the winter of 1400. There may be limited sorrow by local interest groups for the loss of castles like Pontefract or other royal palaces such as Woodstock (Oxfordshire), Langley (Hertfordshire) and Clarendon (Wiltshire) or occasional tutting about the destruction of monasteries during Henry VIII’s Reformation… but there just aren’t the same levels of collective outrage as expressed at Nottingham.
Pontefract Castle was also extensively demolished during the Civil Wars
Calls for the Ducal Palace to be itself demolished and replaced with a replica of the mediaeval castle occur online weekly if not daily. During the last decade there was even one ardent chap who used to regularly write letters in the Nottingham Post demanding this on behalf of the Nottingham 1485 Society (a mysterious, shadowy and secretive bunch who may or may not have comprised just a single member in the form of the compulsive letter writer).
The impracticalities of this are staggering. Aside from the fact that the entire complex is statutorily protected as a scheduled monument and the Ducal Palace is a grade I listed building – how on earth would such a project be funded? It’s difficult enough to raise money for the conservation of our existing historic building stock without adding to the problem. Where would all that stone come from? The Sherwood Sandstones and magnesian limestones of Mansfield are no longer extracted and reopening the quarries would be ruinously expensive. How about all of those mature oak trees needed for the floors, roof structures and timber-framing? Oak is a very pricey building material due to the rarity of 150-200 year old trees needed for construction. Which period of the castle’s history should the building be accurate to? Norman? Henry II? Henry III? Yorkist? Civil War? Additionally, what should the rooms be filled with?
The Ducal Palace during conservation work in 2018
The castle was an enormous complex of buildings and in the mediaeval period itinerant lordship means that most of the time it would have been largely empty. What would the purposes of such a rebuilding be in the 21st century? Would people really be interested in visiting such a pastiche instead of looking at the real thing at more complete castles at Alnwick, Dover or Stokesay? Is this just the wistful nostalgia of the Disney age without consideration of the cost and practicalities? I think it may be.
‘A major Baroque palace’
Which brings us round to finding new positive attitudes about what we do have surviving at Nottingham. Firstly, I will always remain an advocate for the architectural importance of the Ducal Palace. Not only is this Italianate palace a stunningly beautiful building, it is also exceptionally rare in this country. Compare it, for example, with William Talman’s design for the east elevation of Chatsworth House – which receives nothing less than worldwide acclaim. The baroque splendour of the Ducal Palace actually predates Chatsworth (it may have also been a model for the latter) and is located in a far more spectacular location.
It was also the catalyst for a tremendous spate of Neo-Classical construction throughout Nottingham in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. This fundamentally transformed the built environment of the town and included important buildings such as Newdigate House, St Nicholas’ parish church and Willoughby House. Yet it has only been in relatively recent times that architectural specialists have praised the quality of the building’s incredibly important design scheme with it being dubbed ‘a major Baroque palace’ in the pages of Country Life. Meanwhile, the historian Trevor Foulds concluded that: ‘It is an important feature in Nottingham’s cityscape with an honourable place in the city’s social and cultural history.’
Newdigate House on Castlegate – a direct contemporary of the Ducal Palace
Castle Museum & Art Gallery
The importance of the building goes beyond stone and mortar. Nottingham Castle offers a phenomenally important social history which reflects almost 400 years of turbulent class struggles. A new gallery, installed within the former service courtyard, will tell the history of rebellion in Nottingham. From the raising of Charles I’s standard at the castle which led inevitably to his fateful conflict with an incalcitrant Parliament, to the anti-establishment protestors of the Reform Act riots, to the opening of the house and grounds as a public gallery and park – Nottingham Castle has been a symbol of radical dissidence. In more recent years, that nonconformist air has been recaptured through the use of the site as a location for the film of Alan Sillitoe’s novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, a venue for David Walliams’ play Billionaire Boy and, until 2017, as the location of Nottingham’s beer festival.
However, take more than a casual glance at the castle grounds and the visitor will be well-rewarded with in situ mediaeval remains. The thirteenth century eastern and southern curtain wall and towers of the Outer Bailey are preserved to a great height. The outer gatehouse is a very rare survival from Henry III’s building campaigns and features original drum towers flanking a vaulted portal – with portcullis slots and arrow loops – that is approached over a mediaeval bridge. Internally, there are sections of the twelfth century Middle Bailey curtain walls along with the thirteenth century Black Tower. A former drawbridge, built for Henry II, once led into the Inner Bailey and still spans an impressively deep and wide mediaeval ditch. The footings of Richard’s Tower still survive at the base of Castle Rock (although remain in private ownership).
Remains of the twelfth century Middle Bridge and post-mediaeval Service Tunnel
At the very summit of the castle are the enigmatic rock-cut tunnels known as Romylowe’s Cave, King David’s Dungeon and Mortimer’s Hole. The latter stretches all the way down to Brewhouse Yard and may have been an access to the castle’s brewery situated where the world-famous Olde Trip To Jerusalem now stands. These inscrutable underground chambers are part of a network of hundreds of caves of which Nottingham is rightly famous for and guided tours of them are a genuine highlight for visitors. At a micro-level the museum contains some incredible artefacts such as an internationally significant collection of mediaeval alabaster sculptures.
More recently, archaeological fieldwork by Trent & Peak Archaeology has revealed traces of the mediaeval rock-cut ditch between the Upper and Middle Baileys. Work by Triskele Heritage identified the fragments of Edward IV’s carved chimneypieces and an Anglo-Scandinavian grave cover which actually predates the establishment of the castle. Nottingham Castle is a site that is still giving up its secrets.
A fragment of a late fifteenth century chimneypiece that may have originated in Richard’s Tower
Conclusions
The very fact that the mediaeval castle has almost vanished is a vastly significant historical moment. It was not normal practice to deliberately demolish castles to this extent. Typically, the architectural focus of the site – usually the great tower – was partially slighted and the rest of the castle asset stripped; as happened at Helmsley (North Yorkshire), Ashby (Leicestershire) and Raglan (Monmouthshire). The wholesale demolition of the castles proved to be immensely time consuming and ruinously expensive for a war-torn state that was in serious debt.
However, even in the seventeenth century opinions were divided as to what the motives for such complete destruction were. Lucy Hutchinson, wife of the former castle governor Colonel John Hutchinson, stated that the latter was alarmed at Oliver Cromwell’s high-handed behaviour and himself wished to remove the military potential posed by Nottingham. Major Poulton apparently lobbied the Council of State, in the absence of Cromwell, for the demolition – stating concerns over the castle falling into the hands of royalist insurgents. Meanwhile it was reported that Cromwell himself was ‘heartily vexed’ at the loss of the stronghold.
It seems probable that concerns over the strategic location versus the weakened strength of the fortress were coupled to an emblematic demolition of the site where Charles I raised his standard in 1642. Gone were both king and castle in a monumentally symbolic moment of unprecedented politically-charged obliteration. The story of the loss of the mediaeval castle is therefore staggeringly extraordinary and deserves more nuanced and deeper appreciation.
Dr Paul Johnson, who led excavations at the castle for Trent & Peak Archaeology, outlining the research on the castle to students from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Nottingham in 2016
The redevelopment of the castle is an opportunity to retell these stories in new and innovative ways. As future generations engage with the site it is hoped that they will potentially experience it in a far less negative manner. Ultimately the significance of the huge moments of history that the castle has witnessed far outweighs the loss of the physical mediaeval architecture. Equally, what does survive must be rightly celebrated and positive impressions of the Ducal Palace should be renewed.
I have a great love for Nottingham Castle and I hope that you will be able to experience that for yourself.
About the author
James Wright is an award-winning buildings archaeologist who runs Triskele Heritage. He first worked at Nottingham Castle as a conservation stonemason in the early 2000s and later went on to run the Castles of Nottinghamshire project. Latterly, James acted as a historic stone specialist and buildings archaeology consultant at Nottingham Castle for Trent & Peak Archaeology.
He has two decades professional experience of ferreting around in people’s cellars, hunting through their attics and digging up their gardens. He hopes to find meaningful truths about how ordinary and extraordinary folk lived their lives in the mediaeval period.
With the onset of Britain’s third covid-19 lockdown within a year, Triskele Heritage will be stepping up to try and provide some (hopefully) entertaining and informative free public talks. The weekly lockdown lectures will feature the fruits of our research so you can be sure that the content will all be bang up to date!
Each week we will host a lockdown lecture freely accessible to anyone with a web connection via Zoom. All you need to do is register via Eventbrite and – when the time for the talk rolls around – grab your favourite beverage of choice, get comfy and enjoy.
Our second event will take place at 17:00GMT on Thursday 21 January 2021 and will focus on Mediaeval Stonemasons.
Due to our licensing agreement with Zoom tickets for each event will be limited to 495 places. If you cannot make it after booking, please do return your ticket so that someone else can enjoy the talk instead.
Please note that this is a live event only and there will not be a recording of the talk available afterwards.
More information on the talk
A talk on historic stonemasonry and the men who shaped not only the material but the architectural appearance of the Mediaeval period. The discussion looks at quarrying, transporting, setting out, cutting and fixing stonework. The place and influence of stonemasons in the history of architecture and how that relates to exciting new discoveries made by the Thames Discovery Programme of stonework from the Mediaeval Palace of Westminster is also covered.
The escalation of covid-19 cases means that it is highly unlikely that in-person meetings for groups will be able to resume for many months. This is on top of the cancellation of most programmes throughout 2020. Our local societies are the lifeblood of heritage research and outreach throughout the region and, without them operating, we risk losing interest, membership and community cohesion.
A large number of societies have already shown great innovation in moving programmes of talks online. Other groups, understandably, do not have as much confidence in using platforms such as Zoom to virtually host speakers for their members.
Triskele Heritage are now offering support packages to help local heritage societies to get online. The project will host a simple five step programme including the following elements:
An initial consultation via telephone, email or videocall.
An information pack giving very clear instructions, using non-technical language and illustrations, outlining the process of hosting online meetings.
A practical online training session.
Access for society members to a free online talk on an aspect of the county’s history.
Follow-up support.
We hope that we can help Nottinghamshire’s heritage societies to get online. Groups are invited to contact James Wright on james@triskeleheritage.com to discuss joining the enterprise.
Training will take place during February, March and April 2021.
With the onset of Britain’s third covid-19 lockdown within a year, Triskele Heritage will be stepping up to try and provide some (hopefully) entertaining and informative free public talks. The weekly lockdown lectures will feature the fruits of our research so you can be sure that the content will all be bang up to date!
Each week we will host a lockdown lecture freely accessible to anyone with a web connection via Zoom. All you need to do is register via Eventbrite and – when the time for the talk rolls around – grab your favourite beverage of choice, get comfy and enjoy.
Our first event will take place at 17:00GMT on Thursday 14 January 2021 and will focus on A Beginner’s Guide to Castles – What is a Castle?
EDIT: Due to unexpected demand we have now extended our licensing agreement with Zoom. Tickets for each event will be limited to 495 places. although we do not expect to sell out again(!), if you cannot make it after booking, please do return your ticket so that someone else can enjoy the talk instead.
Please note that this is a live event only and there will not be a recording of the talk available afterwards.
More information on the talk
Mediaeval castles are diverse. No two are identical. Stretching across several centuries of use, their design changed radically from their arrival in Britain during the late Saxon period until they faded away in the mid-sixteenth century. Quite how we define these buildings is a problem and this talk will look at the chronological, social, economic, political and construction issues surrounding them.
The speaker, James Wright, is an award-winning buildings archaeologist. He has two decades professional experience of ferreting around in people’s cellars, hunting through their attics and digging up their gardens. He hopes to find meaningful truths about how ordinary and extraordinary folk lived their lives in the mediaeval period. He has surveyed a number of mediaeval castles including the Tower of London, Nottingham Castle and Tattershall Castle.
The people of Nottingham have reacted with a tangible sense of excitement to the news that, the world-renowned graffiti street artist, Banksy has chosen a brick wall in the suburb of Lenton to place a new installation.
My adopted hometown has had a fair bit of bad press recently given the collapse of INTU mid-way through their redevelopment of the Broadmarsh shopping centre and the spike in covid-19 cases which has led to Tier 2 restrictions. So, it has been a real pleasure to see the city brought into the light through this artwork on the corner of Illkeston Road and Rothesay Avenue.
The new installation features a stencilled spray-painted little girl, aged maybe 7 or 8, arms outstretched in balance as she hoola-hoops a bike tyre. Adjacent to her is a bicycle padlocked to a street sign with a mangled front wheel and a missing back tyre.
In these grim days, it is incredible to see such a diverse number of people getting excited by art. And I do mean diverse – when I was down at the site there were around one hundred (socially distanced) folk queueing up to take photos and they accurately represented Nottingham’s vibrant multi-racial and multi-cultural community.
Nottingham residents gather to celebrate their new Banksy in Lenton
So, why might an archaeologist be interested in such a modern phenomenon?
Firstly, it is important to state that archaeology is a subject as big as humanity itself. Whatever you are interested in there will be a historical material culture which can be studied archaeologically. I happen to be a buildings archaeologist and part of my job is looking at graffiti which adorns those buildings. It’s true that I can more usually be found squinting at mediaeval graffiti by the light of a torch in a parish church, but there are some deep-seated connections between the work of Banksy and that of mostly unknown folk from the past.
Recording graffiti at St James’, Aslackby, Lincolnshire (Picture: Lesley Harmer)
Historic graffiti is a very important window onto the past and offers us a dynamic social document as important as anything which could be found in an archive or museum. Prior to the more widespread adoption of literacy during the seventeenth century, graffiti tended to be pictorial. It was created by people of all social backgrounds and is a vital piece of evidence for understanding the everyday lives of ordinary people, many of whom would not leave us any traces of their lives without their graffiti. By learning to “read” those inscriptions we can learn something of their psychologies and emotions… and mostly they speak of their hopes and fears.
Ship graffiti from Norwich Cathedral
Hope might be represented by the carving of a beautiful ship onto the walls of Norwich Cathedral (Norfolk) – perhaps a prayer in stone by a merchant or sailor wishing for their ship to dock safely. Fear can be seen in the ritual protection marks recorded at the Tower of London which were intended to drive away the threat of evil from the building and its occupants. I have recorded graffiti in buildings all over the country from tiny cottages up to the largest cathedrals. What is apparent is that people used the walls as venues to speak of their concerns in life – the graffiti acts as a representation of what was important to them in and of the specific moment of their creation.
Recording graffiti at the Tower of London (Picture: MOLA / Andy Chopping)
Banksy’s graffiti in Lenton does just this and is a very playful and thought-provoking piece. It is located near to the former factories owned by Raleigh, which manufactured bikes locally from 1886 until closure in 2002. The surrounding streets were once home to many of the factory workers. Famously, the principal character in Alan Sillitoe’s novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Arthur Seaton, lived, worked, drank and loved in these streets. Nowadays the area is popular with students as an ideal place to live midway between town and the University of Nottingham. The graffiti speaks of the former workers at the bike factory – notably the bike in the piece is as broken as the economy after the factories closed. The work also reflects the tenacious families who continue to cling to the area despite its grim realities and the hoola-hoop tyre seems to point to an improvised make-and-mend attitude to just keep-on-keeping on. The idea of play is also a burlesque on the later reality of Lenton as a bit of a party town for students. I’m not sure that the subject matter would really work if it were presented anywhere other than these streets.
Nottingham City Council are certainly aware of the cultural cache which Banksy potentially brings to an area. Even before the artist formally acknowledged the piece via his Instagram, the local authority had installed a plastic screen to protect it. A security guard is also diligently watching over the piece. After all, Banksy’s street installations can fetch extremely high prices – in 2014 his iconic Kissing Coppers (originally from Trafalgar Street in Brighton) went for $575,000 (£345,000) at auction. The screen in Lenton may have been extremely foresighted as not long after it was fitted the wall was tagged by another graffiti artist. It was later cleaned by local residents.
There is an irony here. Firstly, it is a very widely acknowledged cultural observation that graffiti begets other graffiti. The presence of a piece of graffiti seems to act as a magnet for other pieces to be added around and over older inscriptions. This is the case both with historic graffiti and with its modern counterparts. It has already taken place in Lenton, not only with the tag, but also through the work of one wit whom has thought to make a comment on Banksy’s stencil technique by placing the phrase “MASS PRODUCED” in orange letters adjacent to the installation.
“MASS PRODUCED” painted next to the Nottingham Banksy
Secondly, graffiti is, by nature, a fleeting and temporary form of art. It seems unlikely that those who scribed on the walls of mediaeval buildings thought that they were creating something that would intrigue later generations or be studied by archaeologists such as myself. Instead, graffiti speaks of the contemporary moment within the mind of an individual in a particular location. Protecting or removing the piece for posterity has the potential to culturally devalue it.
Thirdly, Nottingham has gone wild for this piece (and quite rightly so). There was a real festival atmosphere on Illkeston Road. What would otherwise be a perfectly ordinary suburban arterial road has been briefly transformed into a cultural destination that is really drawing in the (socially distanced) crowds. The line of folk was slightly reminiscent of the queues to see world famous pieces of historic art such as the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and I’ve seldom seen queues of people waiting to interact with art at Nottingham Contemporary or Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery. This installation by Banksy has really brought a much-needed joy, zest and conversation to Nottingham’s streets.
Crowds gathering in Lenton to see the Banksy
Given that I have spent many years studying graffiti I’m both happy to see the Nottingham Banksy getting so much attention and not entirely surprised. I’ve witnessed the compulsive power that graffiti can have on people. That power takes many forms. Humour greeted the discovery of phalluses carved on Hadrian’s Wall by Romans trying to engender good luck. A sense of enigmatic mystique was created by the ritual protection marks at Knole (Kent) which were left by carpenters trying to defend James I from evil after the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Meanwhile, there was amazement at the survival of graffiti left by the Sex Pistols in the 1970s which led to a building on Denmark Street in Soho being protected from demolition.
Graffiti is a tremendously important cultural asset in both the historic and modern eras – but there is definitely a dialogue to be had over how and why we protect it.
If this blog has perhaps piqued your interest in historic graffiti, then please do consider watching my talk on the subject…
About the author
James Wright is an award-winning buildings archaeologist. He has two decades professional experience of ferreting around in people’s cellars, hunting through their attics and digging up their gardens. He hopes to find meaningful truths about how ordinary and extraordinary folk lived their lives in the mediaeval period.
The Buildings of England series has been an indispensable aid to both architectural historians and the general public in understanding historic buildings across the country since Nikolaus Pevsner‘s books were first published in the mid-twentieth century.
The new Nottinghamshire volume is published by Yale Books and has been edited by Clare Hartwell. We met with Clare in the spring of 2019 to discuss the detail of a number of entries including Kings Clipstone, Strelley and Kelham. It is a real privilege to finally see that research work included within what is such an important resource.
Our great thanks go to both Clare and to her publishers.
Our remit is to provide an assessment on how community heritage projects can be made sustainable into a future made uncertain by the global pandemic. By taking our previously successful input into the Kelham Revealed project as a control, we want to find out what does and (crucially) doesn’t work whilst trying a similar piece of work at Collingham during the restrictions on access and gatherings.
Working alongside the local volunteer group we will to try and better understand the extent, nature and phasing of the built environment in the village. New methods will be trialed including socially-distanced meetings, outdoor sessions, video training events and online Q & A among several other techniques.
The project reporting will be two-fold: a standard buildings archaeology document outlining the results and conclusions of the research and an assessment of how heritage outreach projects can be made sustainable for the future in these uncertain times.
At Triskele Heritage we are continually re-assessing adaptations to our work given the uncertain world of the covid-19 pandemic. There is clearly still a large sector of society who wish to engage with their heritage. We want to be able to help them to do this whilst taking into consideration the necessary restrictions on access and gatherings.
The value of heritage to well-being is long-established and we see an important part of our offer to society to be able to help support communities through such odd times.
Talks
As a matter of course we are now offering our extensive portfolio of lectures to groups via online platforms. Given that it is hard to foresee when gatherings will be safe for groups indoors, we feel that it is vital to try and maintain the social and educational aspects of heritage societies. The lynch-pin of groups is their programme of talks, which have always been an invaluable outreach for people who may be feeling isolated – even in ‘normal’ times. During these uncertain days, trying to find a way to maintain these events is essential.
We now offer the facility to handle all administration in setting up online events as part of the local history calendar. Groups are welcome to get in contact with a proposed subject, date and time and we will handle the detail. All that your members have to do is click a link, sit back and enjoy the presentation.
The Q&A after a talk for The Folklore Podcast on the myth of ship timbers in historic pubs.
We have begun working with many new groups including The Folklore Podcast, Prospect and Westminster City Libraries as they explore new ways to interact with their audiences. Equally, our existing clients, such as the Richard III Society and Bromley House Library, have been able to maintain their programme and connect with members through the transfer of existing bookings to online platforms.
One major advantage of virtual talks is that we have been able to speak for organisations such as Leintwardine History Society. Tucked away deep in the Herefordshire countryside, we would previously have encountered many logistical barriers in booking a speaker from Nottingham. Using online resources solves those tricky travel and accommodation problems at the click of a mouse.
The feedback from attendees at such sessions has been generally (and embarrassingly) positive:
“Absolutely brilliant! Incredibly knowledgeable, fantastic presentation! More please!”
“It was fascinating, just phenomenal! I’ve been doing loads of courses/ webinars, but certainly this was the best!”
Videos
Not all of our clients favour a live presentation, so we have adapted to be able to provide recordings of our talks which can then be sent on as a link to society members to watch at their own leisure. Two of these have so far been uploaded to Youtube and are freely available for anyone to watch
A commission from the Local History Cafe led to the upload of, what has always been, one of our most popular lectures on the subject of Historic Graffiti…
2. Our long-term collaborators Inspire asked for a contribution towards their online Heritage Open Days 2020 project. Normally this event would involve opening up historic buildings and spaces not normally accessible to the general public. This year we attempted to do that as a virtual tour of a lost mediaeval house in Kelham, Nottinghamshire…
Our remit is to provide an assessment on how community heritage projects can be made sustainable into the uncertain future. By taking our previously successful input into the Kelham Revealed project as a control, we want to find out what does and (crucially) doesn’t work whilst trying a similar piece of work at Collingham during the restrictions of a global pandemic.
Working alongside the local volunteer group we will to try and better understand the extent, nature and phasing of the built environment in the village. New methods will be trialed including socially-distanced meetings, outdoor sessions, video training events and online Q & A among several other techniques.
The project reporting will be two-fold: a standard buildings archaeology document outlining the results and conclusions of the research and an assessment of how heritage outreach projects can be made sustainable for the future in these uncertain times.
If you wish to work with Triskele Heritage on an outreach project in the future then please do get in contact with us.
With us all unable to poke around inside normally private houses as part of Heritage Open Days 2020, many organisations have opted for digital content this year. Our own modest offering is a short documentary for Inspire on a house at Kelham, near Newark, Nottinghamshire. We surveyed the property as part of the Kelham Revealed project alongside our friends and colleagues at MB Archaeology in 2019. Conventionally dated to the seventeenth century, but containing all manner of mediaeval surprises within…
